Now that the principle of introducing a capped cost social care partnership model has been set out in the care bill, the next step is to resolve the Pandora's box of issues that need to be resolved in time for April 2016. From then on, people's qualifying social care costs could count towards reaching the cap of £72,000, after which the state will help towards the cost of the person's care.

The aim is to provide financial help for people currently facing catastrophic care costs. The government's intention is to assess all the self-funders already receiving care who ask to have their costs applied towards the cap. The care bill introduces a national assessment framework to assess people's eligibility for care, and also to have the associated costs count towards the cap. All eligible people will have a personal care account which will monitor their progress towards the cap. All this will need to be implemented before April 2016 – but how?

According to Laing & Buisson, there were 175,000 people in residential care (43.4%) in 2012 who paid the full cost without support from their local authority. How many will apply to have their care costs accrue towards the cap? Whatever the answer, it is clear that the assessment exercise could require considerable financial and human resources, falling for the most part on local authorities and social services. The fear is that this exercise could have an adverse effect on the care sector.

People will need to apply to be assessed. Only people who are certain that their qualifying care costs will never reach the cap should not apply. It has been estimated that the cap will apply to around 15% of all care self-funders – those incurring the highest qualifying costs are often people with dementia. How will the facts and the process be communicated, so that people are clear about whether or not to apply? What about people who lack mental capacity?

Communicating the right message won't be easy, not least because the mechanics of the cap are complex. For people in residential care, qualifying care costs will exclude accommodation costs of £1,000 a month and also any top-up care costs. For people receiving care at home, it's what their local authority would pay were they responsible. This qualifying amount will be called the person's 'independent personal budget'.

Given this complexity, people may not realise that not all their care costs will count towards the cap, and even after they reach the cap, the local authority still won't meet the full cost. Will this lead to needless applications, and local authorities doing more assessments than they need to? Self-funders should be assessed immediately before April 2016 so that they don't miss out on any qualifying costs. Could this create a traffic jam in the system in March 2016? How will the queuing system work, and what will happen to any people who lose out? The average stay in a care home is around four years for a self-funder – whereas it is only two and a half years for those paid for by their local authority. The difference is attributed to the high bar associated with qualifying for state paid care for people without any means. The consequence is that self-funders are likely to fail the assessment and not be eligible. Will this lead to a log jam of appeals and disputes? How will these be handled and at what point will the person be reassessed?

Should people who fail be given information and advice about prevention and re-ablement services? Some people will be receiving inappropriate or sub-optimal care. Can this be used as an opportunity to improve the quality of care people are getting? If these self-funders run out of money, additional costs will fall to the state – so this is an ideal opportunity for them to be given information about how to get regulated financial advice.

There is no doubt that the sector will need to be a hive of activity over the next couple of years if we are to get properly assessed in time for the cap to be implemented on schedule. It is important that local and central government work with the care, voluntary and financial sectors, and together seek out the many opportunities that could flow from the work involved in making the transition from concept to reality.

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